A bravissimo from Turin, Italy, for the San Francisco Symphony

Bass player Christ Gilbert rehearses for the San Francisco Symphony's Turin concert last week.

Bass player Christ Gilbert rehearses for the San Francisco Symphony's Turin concert last week.

Photo: Oliver Theil / San Francisco Sym

Photo: Oliver Theil / San Francisco Sym

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Bass player Christ Gilbert rehearses for the San Francisco Symphony's Turin concert last week.

Bass player Christ Gilbert rehearses for the San Francisco Symphony's Turin concert last week.

Photo: Oliver Theil / San Francisco Sym

A bravissimo from Turin, Italy, for the San Francisco Symphony

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The San Francisco Symphony performed last week in Turin as part of its European tour, which began in Spain and included stops in Italy and Greece. Here is a review of the Turin performance from the Milan newspaper La Stampa, translated for the Symphony by Alessandra Costa:

The anticipation of hearing the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas drew a very large audience to the Giovanni Agnelli Auditorium in Turin. The capacity crowd was appropriate for an ensemble that is exemplary for its tight and harmonious sound.

Strauss used to say that it takes 100 years to make a great orchestra. The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, created in 1906, is not 100 yet, but the goal has already been reached, thanks to the skill of Thomas, who leads the ensemble.

As it often happens with pieces written for piano, "Orchestral Variations" by Aaron Copland seems to have been created purposefully to make the ability of each orchestra section shine. Copland's work, which is not so well known here in Italy, evokes a beautiful robustness of forms and contours

After the Copland came an absolute crowd favorite, the Second Piano Concerto of Sergey Rachmaninoff. With a piece that has such Hollywood-like popularity, one might fear that a Californian orchestra could easily go overboard with sentimentality. On the contrary, the execution was elegant and sober, which made the softness of the string instruments shine all the more, particularly the violas and cellos.

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performed the work in an equally sober style, able to express tenderness and languor accompanied by great technical strength, but never indulging in effect or sentimentality. As an encore, he played a delicacy by Mompou, proving once more his inclination for intimacy.

And finally came Sibelius, his Second Symphony providing another opportunity to show off the sheer beauty of the orchestra's sound. This work confirms the impression that Sibelius was a musician inclined more to fragment and sketch rather than to symphonize. Born for the watercolor brush, Sibelius instead insisted on wielding the hammer of a sculptor, often resulting in hyperbole. But it seems that Sibelius is coming back to Turin on a grand scale. In the meantime, there was a triumph of applause for the Sibelius and an encore of Bizet's "Arlesienne."